UNITED STATES
Officer fired over feces
A San Antonio police officer has been fired after an internal investigation determined he tried to give a homeless man a sandwich with feces inside it. San Antonio Police Chief William McManus on Friday said in a statement that Matthew Luckhurst committed a “vile and disgusting act.” Luckhurst, a five-year member of the department, told another officer in May that he had picked up feces, placed it on bread and put it in a container for the homeless man. McManus says the second officer told Luckhurst to retrieve the container, but it is not clear whether he did. At least two officers reported Luckhurst’s actions to supervisors.
UNITED KINGDOM
Arrests at London protest
Police on Saturday said they arrested 47 people at an anti-capitalism demonstration in central London organized by the Anonymous hacking group. Hundreds of protesters, many of them masked, took part in the protest which began in Trafalgar Square and moved to parliament. Demonstrators chanted “Whose streets? Our streets” and “One solution, revolution” as they marched accompanied by police. In a breakdown of an earlier tally of the arrests, when 33 people had been detained, police said 14 people were arrested for drugs offences and 11 for obstruction. One person was arrested for criminal damage.
EL SALVADOR
Ex-leader jailed before trial
Former president Elias Antonio Saca will be kept in jail pending trial on charges of embezzling millions of dollars while in power, prosecutors said on Saturday. Six other suspects in the case — including three current government officials — have also been ordered by a judge to be held in preventive detention until the trial begins, the chief prosecutors’ office said on its Twitter account. The seven suspects are accused of diverting US$246 million in public money in a case that includes charges for corruption, money-laundering and criminal association. The judge also ordered the suspects’ assets and accounts frozen. Saca was arrested late last month with the others and denies the allegations.
ITALY
Violence mars protest
Hooded youths taking part in an anti-government protest in Florence on Saturday attacked police with cobblestones, sticks and other objects and police responded with tear gas. Media reports said one officer was injured on the leg in the clashes, apparently from a firecracker. Police used shields to block young men who were charging them in an attempt to reach a building where Prime Minister Matteo Renzi was attending political talks. Those involved in the clashes were among a larger group of anti-government protesters who marched while Renzi was in the city. The demonstration aimed to show opposition to a constitutional referendum on Dec. 4.
UNITED STATES
Renowned scientist dies
Ralph Cicerone, president emeritus of the National Academy of Sciences and a renowned authority on atmospheric chemistry and climate change, has died. He was 73. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine media relations director William Kearney said Cicerone died unexpectedly at his home in Short Hills, New Jersey, on Saturday. Cicerone was the National Academy of Sciences’ 21st president, serving from 2005 until June. He balanced advocacy for independent scientific advice with maintaining a dialogue with policymakers on major scientific issues. His research helped shape policy around the world.
SOUTH KOREA
Four killed in bus crash
At least four people were killed and more than 40 injured after a packed tour bus rolled onto its side on a highway near the central city of Daejeon, police said yesterday. The bus — carrying 45 passengers — was not speeding yesterday morning when it suddenly swerved and flipped to its side, the Yonhap news agency cited a survivor as saying. Police said the exact cause of the accident is still under investigation. “Some were pinned on top of each other on the floor after the bus flipped,” the 70-year-old survivor, identified only by his surname, Lee, was quoted as saying by Yonhap. “I was hanging from my seat belt until I was rescued,” he said. The injured have all been taken to hospital, with eight people in a critical condition. The passengers were members of a hiking club on their way to a mountain in South Chungcheong Province.
BANGLADESH
Muslim militants arrested
Police yesterday arrested four suspected Muslim militants, including two linked to the slaying of a Japanese man one year ago, in a raid on their hideout in an abandoned brick kiln. The Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh militants threw homemade bombs, wounding three officers, before they were overpowered, police said. Guns, explosives and other weapons were found at the scene. The arrests were made about 300km north of Dhaka in Rangpur District, where Kunio Hoshi, a 65-year-old agriculturalist, was killed while working on a farming project in the impoverished, mostly Muslim country. Mizanur Rahman, a police superintendent in Rangpur, said that two of the men arrested, Belal Hossain and Ershad Alam, had helped train the militants who had killed Hoshi.
INDIA
Delhi looks to alleviate smog
New Delhi yesterday announced a slew of measures to combat the crippling air pollution that has engulfed the city, including closing down schools, halting construction and ordering that all roads be doused with water to settle dust. New Delhi, one of the world’s dirtiest cities, saw levels of PM2.5 — tiny particulate matter that can clog lungs — soar to over 900 micrograms per cubic meter on Saturday. That is more than 90 times the level considered safe by the WHO and 15 times the Indian government’s norms. The severe weekend pollution followed a week of constant gray smog. New Delhi’s Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal yesterday said that schools would be shut for three days, and all construction and demolition activity halted for at least five days.
YEMEN
Fresh fighting kills 20
Fresh clashes in two different parts of the country yesterday killed 14 pro-Iran rebels and six fighters loyal to the internationally recognized government, military officials said. Among them was loyalist General Yehia al-Khayati, who died at a Saudi hospital where he was taken after being wounded in clashes in Midi, a northwestern town close to the Saudi border and the Red Sea coast, an official said. Two rebel fighters were also killed in those clashes, the source said. Further south on the outskirts of the oil-rich Usailan district of Shabwa Province, rebel forces attacked loyalist positions sparking clashes that killed 12 insurgents and five pro-government soldiers, another military source said. Yemen has been rocked by war since the Houthi rebels and their allies expanded from their northern historic strongholds seizing the capital Sana’a and other parts of the country.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese